Digital Divide And Economic Development

Digital divide is the "Information drop" caused by the disparities of possession and utilization ability to information tools in different regions, countries and groups of people, hence the gap of chance and distribution of fortune. The differences in the aspects of the stage of economic development, educational level and technology power produce digital divide in various levels and respects. Digital divide, in turn, affects the development of economy, and reform the relationship of production, such as politics, education system, international relationship, and so on.The problem of digital divide is firstly reflected in different countries (regions), and secondly it is reflected in different regions and groups in a country. This thesis will discuss USA, OECD and China. After detailed comparison of possession and appliance of Information Technology, this thesis will analyze the digital divide among and inside the three countries (organization). The digital gaps among USA, OECD and China are the same as the gaps of fortune. Digital divide has become smaller and smaller among them in the USA. There are relatively large digital divide inside OECD. The information regional distribution in China is totally contrary to the geographic distribution which is high on the west and low in the east.A lot of countries adjust their industry structure and they deem informatization is the core. China also aims to the key point: make positive use of Information Technology, bridge digital gap, narrow the gap to developed countries as well as the gap among different areas and the gap between town and country in China.Economic divide, technological divide, knowledge divide and institutional divide cause the problem of digital divide. How to Change digital divide to digital chance? This thesis puts forward a series of policy suggestion to bridge digital gap in respect of information infrastructure, E-government, enterprise activity, education system and international cooperation.